The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America [Hardcover]

David Carlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

The Roots of the Crisis That’s Rocked the Pulpits and Emptied the Pews Many Catholics blame Vatican II for the decline of the Church in America these past 30 years: traditionalists say it caused too many changes, liberals say too few.

In this groundbreaking book, sociologist David Carlin shows that although Vatican II was the flashpoint for change in the Church, the roots of today’s crisis go deeper than anything that happened at the Council.

Basing his conclusions on sociological analysis rather than on theology or Church teachings, Carlin shows that in the 1960’s the Church in America was weakened by the triumph of tolerance as an American virtue (which led Catholics to downplay their uniquely Catholic beliefs for the sake of unity) and then was battered by a culture that, seemingly overnight, had become boldly secularist and even libertine.

Called by Vatican II to engage the culture in order to evangelize it, while pressed by the culture to downplay its Catholicity in the name of tolerance, the Church in America lost its way.

The result? A widespread loss of Catholic identity; weakening of fidelity to Church teachings; Catholics abandoning their faith; and a diminishment of the Church's role as a moral voice in American society.

Carlin’s analysis has uncovered a problem that’s older and even more dangerous for the future of Catholicism than the deeds that have lately thrust the Church onto the front pages. Indeed, says Carlin, the scandals are merely symptoms of this deeper problem that will continue to drain the Church’s vitality long after the scandals are forgotten.

The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America: essential reading for all who seek to understand the decline of their beloved Church and who hope to devise effective ways to restore her.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Author David Carlin is a professor of philosophy and sociology at the Community College of Rhode Island, where he has taught for twenty years.

From 1981 to 1992, he was a Rhode Island state senator and in 1989 and 1990 he severed as Senate Majority Leader. In 1992, he was a Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representives.

Carlin has published more than a hundred articles on social, political, cultural, and religious topics, including articles for the New York Times, America, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Commonweal, First Things, and other journals, secular and religious.

Carlin and his wife, Maureen, have three adult children and one grandchild, and live in Newport, Rhode Island.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Sophia Institute Press; Second Edition edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1928832792
• ISBN-13: 978-1928832799
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Synthesis, April 9, 2004

By 

J. Connolly "jconnol1" (TAMPA, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America (Hardcover)

An outstanding synthesis of how three major factors coalesced about 40 years ago to undermine and severely damage the US Catholic Church's culture and teaching authority. I remember the Church as a very young child before 1962 and can appreciate the catastrophic post-Vatican II effects David Carlin so eloquently describes. His assessment of how we got to where we are today, as well as his prescription for rescuing Christ's holy Church in the US is right on target. I applaud Mr. Carlin's brilliant analysis. With lots of prayers, another St. Charles Borromeo for the 21st century, and a miracle, we may avoid falling into further irrelevancy and decline. Given our current secularist culture, as sick as it is and as pervasive even in the Church, I pray for bishops and priests to have the moral courage to preach the truth and do all they can to reverse the ominous trends Mr. Carlin describes. His book is a highly commendable first step in helping the leaders of the Church to speak the truth with fervor and choose orthodoxy over "making it up as you go along." I wish every ordained clergyman and member of the Church would read this excellent book and take its message to heart and act on its providential message.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that is very eye opening, December 5, 2003

By 

Kenneth Bonomo (Coal City, Il USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America (Hardcover)

This book does an execellent job of looking at the decline of the Catholic Church since the 1960's from a sociological perspective. Carlin addresses in an easy to read manner the step by step cultural upheavals that helped errode the faith of most Catholics in the last forty years. While I would have liked him to have a brighter perspective on the Catholic Church's future in America, I cannot but help feeling he is right on the mark with his assessments. The general assessement of the books is that the Catholic Faith will gradually become weaker and weaker a force in shaping America's future and will become as impotent a force as the Amish culture in shaping country's future if we continue to water down our faith to be more acceptable in the eyes of our secular American society. As long as we are content to water down the tough issues (Abortion, Euthanasia, Artificial Contraception, divorce, fornication, homosexuality) we will cease to be authentically the Catholic Church Christ founded and will simply become just another liberal church bowing at the altar of secular opinion polls.
I like the author's comments on Christ's promise that the Church that it would last to the end of the world. He asserts that while Christ's assertation will be true, Christ did not say America's Catholic Church would last to the end. There were Catholic diocese in Islamic countries centuries that currently are dead and gone. There are many places where the Church was that no longer survive. If Catholics in America do not get serious about being authentically Catholic, we may eventually lose the Church here. It will be of little consolation here in America if the Catholic faith thrives in Latin America, Africa, South America to the end of time, if our American Church dies here. We need to do what we can to perseve the faith where we live.

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A step in the right direction,, January 7, 2004

By 

Craig Townsend "Truth seeker" (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America (Hardcover)

David Carlin's book is a great step by a Catholic Sociologist to examine and analyze the decline of Catholicism in America since the end of Vatican II in 1965. It is a must read book that belongs in every Catholic's library.

That said, I have to mention that Mr. Carlin does not go far enough or deep enough into the reasons behind Catholicism's decline, not only in America but worldwide. His book could be renamed "The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America and around the world." His main thesis that the Church hit an unfortunate tripple whammy of Vatican II, the end of the Catholic ghetto and the mainstreaming of Catholics into the culture, and the rise of secularism. Yet, he does not examine all of the ramifications inherent in the first major cause, Vatican II and how it effected the other two.

In his analysis of what the Church needs to do to pull out of this decline, in the next to the last chapter, was once again lacking systematic thought. There is a mental incoherence which is inherent in the mass of neo-Catholic's today. Even when trying to fight liberalism and secularism, they are so infected by these two "isms", that they forver fail to connect all of the dots, or overcome their inherent mental inertia.

He goes into the need for the Church to "invent" new rituals in order to fight secularism, failing to notice that Catholcism is traditionaly anti-inventionist! In fact, it was the cult of inventionism and experimentation, ushered in by Vatican II, that has caused the problem in the first place.

There is no need to invent (sic) anything. One of the main secularizing and liberalizing influences in the Church today is the new mass. It, more then anything else has dismantled Catholicism, and the anti-secularist supernatural mindset in the Church. Once neo-protestantism and "naturalism", was embraced in the litergy, it was only natural that the decline and secularization of the Church would Follow. I am willing to give this author the benefit of the doubt, for there are many great books that detail the problems inherent in the new mass and the post Vatican II stress disorder. What was needed was a great transition book that could touch upon the subject, and would lead the Catholic inquirer deeper into the subject by further reading. Mr. Carlin accomplishes this goal admirably.

All in all it is a great book and a beginning for Catholic's searching for the reasons behind the many ills in their Church today. From here I would recommend the book, "The Great Facade" to flesh out ones understanding of how we got to where we are today and what is truly needed to get the Catholic Church out of the guagmire of (post)modernism.